Light overtakes my form, swirling around me and forming my outfit as Fulgora's broken body is replaced with my own. Small and sleek, dressed in soft gloves and a flowing skirt, I am the very picture of a magical girl. But I'm more than just an idea aliens stole from old cartoons.

I am an Earth Guardian! And I won't lose again!

"Bʀᴀᴠᴇ Pʀɪɴᴄᴇss Dᴜᴛɪғᴜʟ Mɪɴᴇʀᴠᴀ!" I shout, and though the spell blasts Nanaya away, she doesn't waste any time regaining her footing and launching forward in a renewed assault. She's a close-range fighter, after all, and I'm a lot smaller than Fulgora, with a spell set that focuses much more on long-distance attacks. But of course, it's not really a problem. Nanaya is forgetting something very important.

I'm still here, bitch!

"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ—"

Use a fake aim to make her dodge.

"—Sᴛᴇᴘ!"

And teleport behind her!

"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!"

Nanaya twists around and barely summons her viola in time to block, but the force of the impact with my gunstaff is still enough for the thunderclap to explode in her face, damaging her through her guard and sending her careening through the air. Now, I aim down the length of my weapon for a real shot. I fire a tiny glowing dot, barely visible and largely powerless. It strikes true on Nanaya's chest, doing nothing on its own, but before I even finish speaking the words of the spell, I'm raising one hand towards the skies. That shot was just to tell the magic where to go.

"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Rᴇᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ!"

Nanaya tries to dodge, but it's already too late. A massive thunderbolt falls from the sky and smashes her into the ground, crushing and electrocuting her all at once. The earth explodes where she lands, pain wracking through her body… though it's far from time to let my guard down. Even on her hands and knees, the woman glares furiously at me from the corner of her eye.

"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!" I follow up, not wanting to give her even a moment to recover as I take to the skies, but despite the pain arcing through her body she manages to dodge, pushing off the ground with her hands and springing into the air. She summons the bow of her viola, drawing back the string like it was the weapon of the same name, and gathers magic into a brilliant red arrow that forms itself already nocked.

"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Tᴀᴄᴛɪᴄᴀʟ Pʀᴇᴄɪsɪᴏɴ Sᴛʀɪᴋᴇ," she growls, the arrow growing to several times its former size before she launches the shot straight up into the air. I track its ascent, but it rapidly becomes little more than a red speck in the sky and I have no choice but to take my eyes off of it and keep them on Nanaya instead. She's too dangerous of an opponent to ignore.

She flies after me as I try to make distance, harrying me with smaller energy arrows as I fire back with bolts of lightning. We dance through the air with each other, always fighting to gain an advantageous position and repeatedly missing each other by a hair's breadth.

In the distance behind us, Melpomene and Castalia perform an eerily similar dance, albeit over a much broader scope at far faster speeds. They rarely fire at each other, each refusing to commit as they size each other up. Both of them are keeping one eye on our fight, too, and I realize that either of them could end it in an instant in favor of their side if given a chance. Yet they're both content acting as nothing more than a deterrent for the other… why, I wonder? Castalia was confident she could take Melpomene, wasn't she?

We're probably in her way. Let's end this fast.

Yeah, alright. Keeping this as a stalemate is in no one's best interest. Time to commit.

You sure about this? It messed us up pretty bad the first time.

You can't say it wasn't effective, though. And it's a field control spell; if we're going to use it at all, it's better to use it early so we can have it up for the entire rest of the fight.

Alright. Alright, let's do this. I'm definitely good and mad.

And I'm terrified. Let's kick her butt. Fulgora and I take a deep breath, draw deep from inside ourselves, and say the words.

"Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Cᴏɴғʟᴜᴇɴᴛ Sᴜᴘᴇʀsᴛᴏʀᴍ!"

Nanaya's eyes go wide as I take our fight from zero to a hundred in three simple words, but we're committed to this. We're going to beat her. A surge of magic floods the air around us, forming into dark clouds that swirl and twist overhead, the herald of a violent storm. The wind picks up, its raging gusts an extension of my body and mind, letting me feel everything, be everything. I slam down on Nanaya, a downburst slapping her out of the sky like the back of my own hand as lightning gathers ahead.

She's endangering the entire world, helping the corrupted mine for dark artifacts. But more importantly than that, she hurt Aurora. She hurt Veritas. We will not allow her to threaten them again! NEVER AGAIN!

"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Sɪʟᴇɴᴛ Dɪᴀsᴘᴏʀᴀ!" Nanaya roars, turning the whole world a perfect pitch black, slinking silently through the air to attack me from behind. But I'm not blind here, not anymore. We are the storm!

"Tᴡɪɴ Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!"

My aim is true, both bolts arcing through Nanaya at once before getting joined by a third from above. My foe cries out in pain, a vicious smile forming on my face. More! Again! Don't let up! Alone, we might be weak, but together, we are stronger than her!

Nanaya strikes her bow across her viola, causing out a painful screech that pierces through the quiet of her own abreaction. Around me, the black shadows shift, coalescing together into humanoid shapes, ethereal yet solid against the wind.

"Sᴏʟᴅɪᴇʀ's Éᴛᴜᴅᴇ," Nanaya declares, and despite the storm battering her once more into the ground, she absorbs the fall on her multi-jointed legs and begins to play her viola.

It's a simple piece, starting with low, long notes as the shadow forms line up, wispy replicas of rifles forming in their hands. I drop a row of lightning bolts on top of them, blasting them apart, but more keep forming around me, aiming their weapons to fire. Nanaya's music speeds up, going up and down the scale in increasingly frantic ways before an entire ring of them surrounds me and fires.

I drop down, the bullets of darkness whizzing over my head and the shadows all killing each other in the crossfire, dropping dead and disintegrating into mist. But just as quickly as they disappear, more form around me. My target clearly needs to be Nanaya. She sidesteps a lightning bolt as I fire one her way, continuing to play, while the next shot I fire gets intercepted by a quickly formed shadow. Her attack isn't very dangerous, but it's not supposed to be, is it? She's just stalling for time. The moment my Catharsis runs out, I'll be completely spent, and she'll win.

My turn, then.

Agreed. The wind at my back, I launch myself directly at her, staff swinging with as much intent to disrupt her music as to actually hit her. She's not quite as focused of a combatant while in the middle of playing a song, but she's still no slouch. My falling strike misses by a hair, but overly committed attacks like that aren't anywhere near as much of a problem when you have spells like Fulgora's.

"Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ!" she shouts with my mouth, and our weapon is instantly accelerated into a follow-up attack. "Round two, bitch!"

No need to be rude! Nanaya winces as she blocks our strike with her forearm, lashing out with a kick that we fly over, making a jab at her head as we pass by. But Nanaya splits her conjoined arm, catching our strike with her now-free hands and yanking us in.

"Aʀᴍᴀɢᴇᴅᴅᴏɴ Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ!" Nanaya casts, bringing her knee up towards our head. We barely manage to drop our weapon and evade in time, though her strike still detonates in the air, sending us flying into a wall. The shadow soldiers summoned by her song appear as a firing line in front of me, unleashing a hail of bullets that break against my chest, tearing holes in my incarnate armor and stinging like an absolute motherfucker.

Nanaya herself isn't idle either, as an instant later her foot is on course to smash me through the wall entirely. It's time. On instinct, we gather our magic, Fulgora and I casting together.

"Tᴡɪɴ Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ!"

My body seems to split in two, with me dodging left and a short-lived construct mirroring my movements right, each of us avoiding Nanaya's strike on either side. And just as quickly as we dodge, we attack in sequence, two versions of my incarnate weapon striking Nanaya on either side. She blocks them both, but I finally hit the hand holding her viola, forcing her to miss a note and ending her spell. In response, she grabs one of the incarnate weapons again… but it's the wrong one, my mirror self dissipating at the spell's end and leaving me free to bury my shin into her stomach.

The impact strikes her directly in the densest cluster of crystals growing out of her, which hurts like hell, my leg getting torn up from the impact. But the strike is devastating. Nanaya vomits up blood as the blow connects, dropping both parts of her incarnate weapon and causing her to tumble backwards, completely disoriented. Now is the time! Finish her!

I command the storm, a torrent of wind crushing her as four lightning bolts descend from the heavens on top of her head. And just for good measure, I line up my staff, and…

What?

The world is red, my head is ringing, and I can't feel anything but pain. I'm tumbling through the air, the shockwave of some unknown explosion having flung me away from Nanaya at the final moment. The attack she launched into the air! Damn it! This whole fight, I've been ready for surprises, but it came down right at the perfect moment, the instant I was focused entirely on offense. That was… that was bad. That almost took me out in one shot.

Almost. But not quite. The storm still rages.

The storm still rages! And even with my vision blurry, my body unsteady, and my broken sense of balance trying to spin me every which-way, I can feel her. I know where she is. With the sky above still charging, I line up my shot.

But she speaks faster.

"Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Oᴍɴɪᴄɪᴅᴀʟ Wʀᴀᴛʜ."

The all-consuming darkness of Nanaya's Abreaction, the space beyond, and even the air of the very storm I control… all of it bursts into flames. Fire roars through the atmosphere, choking out the atmosphere and hungrily grasping for flesh to devour. I move my storm, creating a swirling barrier of air around me, but the fire presses in, clawing at everything, trying to destroy everything.

Even Nanaya has been set aflame. But she stands tall regardless, the fire only burning her slightly faster than she can heal. It's all I can do to keep the flames away, my Catharsis battling hers for dominance.

"I trusted them too, you know," Nanaya says with disturbing calm. "I was an Earth Guardian, in body, mind, and soul. When they told me I was doing something noble, doing something great, and wise, and just… I believed them with all my heart."

The fire roars and the storm roars back, the entire liminal zone around us slowly but surely getting devoured by the flames. Maybe… maybe even literally. Between the flickers of burning light, I could almost swear I see glimpses of Earth, and perhaps somewhere that is most assuredly not Earth. But with the fire illuminating it all, how could it look like the Dark World?

"And so they used me up, risking nothing and demanding everything as all goodness in my life burned to ash around me. And they looked to me, and they said: this is right. This is the correct way to use power."

The flames burn hotter as Nanaya's rage spikes, her pinprick eyes staring through me with unyielding hatred towards something neither of us can see.

"It is," Nanaya says, "a lesson I have learned well."

The fire screams, the harrowing sounds of men, women, and children burning alive. The cries start out loud, startling me, but the true horror comes from the moments after, where the pain gives way to death, and despite the unrelenting agony there is no more energy left to cry out in pain. The smell of burnt meat wafts in through my storm.

"The Dark Rebellion—or the Corrupted, as you know them—are good people, by and large. Even Melpomene has her moments, as ultimately they all want nothing more than what's best for the world. They have good reasons for doing what they do. We all have good reasons to distrust the Preservers. It benefits me to espouse the same virtues, but alone in the darkest of nights, I know the truth of myself. I do not care about saving the world. All I want is for the Preservers to burn."

I'm holding on by a thread and I know it. Only the abject terror of the screaming fire around me keeps me going, but my Catharsis is running on fumes. I had my moment. I'm almost spent.

"They. Deserve. To BURN!" Nanaya shouts. "TO BURN LIKE MY FAMILY DID! TO BURN LIKE THE MEN I SLAUGHTERED! TO BURN LIKE EVERY CHILD LOST TO THEIR SELFISH, EGOCENTRIC INSANITY!"

Peeling open my barrier of air, the heat presses in on me, boiling me despite my defenses. I have to hold on, I have to hold on, but I can't!

But we have to.

We have to!

"You know nothing, you idiotic child!" Nanaya rages, her composure utterly lost. Skin blackens, then ashens, and ultimately flakes away off her face, the fire consuming even its master, and she doesn't even seem to notice. "But you will. We will not let you destroy what we've found! Not today! Today, the world finally gets to know the truth! Today, after so long, we finally hurt them in a way that matters!"

Spittle would be flying from her mouth if the flames hadn't already burned it dry. It's a miracle she's still speaking. She's killing herself with her own attack. We just have to hold out! Just a little longer! I know. I know! But my eyes are flickering closed. My fear and anger are drying up. The most I feel right now is… pity. She's in so much pain.

No, don't think about that! We have to hate her! We have to fear her! Come on, remember Veritas and Aurora!

I love those kids.

And she hurt them!

I know. I know she did. I'm trying, but… I'm spent. I'm spent, Fulgora. I'm sorry. We got so close.

I… damn it. I can't even be mad about it. Is this the end?

I guess we'll see. I'm not really afraid of it either way.

I can't fly anymore, and when I land on the ground I just about collapse on the spot. My Catharsis, having used up every last drop of my emotions, finally ends. The flames return, and they hurt, but… I'm just so tired. I can't… I…

"[M ᴇ ɢ ᴀ B ᴜ s ᴛ ᴇ ʀ]"

Backup? Already? And for the enemy team. I guess it doesn't really matter, I… huh? Wait.

The shot that pierced through the flames… just hit Nanaya. The yellow orb of energy bursts against the side of her head, knocking her over and knocking her out immediately. The fire disappears, though the blackened ground and devoured remnants of liminal buildings remain, as do the the countless burns that have chewed through Nanaya's flesh. Or at least, they remain until Nanaya's incarnate form breaks, deactivated by her unconsciousness, and her body returns to its prior state, her tattered suit replaced with an old cloak and cloth bandages.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

And then, the humanoid artifact appears, walking over the smoldering ground without difficulty. It leaps over to Nanaya, gingerly picking her up before the lingering heat can sear itself too deeply into her non-incarnate skin.

Oh. I see. It's here to prevent Nanaya from killing herself. That makes sense. I guess I'll still die here; the toxic fumes and burning ground aren't survivable for my human self, and it won't be long before I can't even hold onto who I am anymore. I won't even care about something as important as that, at least until I rest. So I'll die in my sleep. Heh. Not the way I was expecting to go, even if it is on a battlefield.

The artifact turns to me, its crystalline yellow eyes utterly expressionless as it shifts Nanaya onto a translucent floating platform. Amalthea's spell, I realize. I guess she didn't fight, so maybe she was controlling the artifact? That would make sense.

Oh hey, the artifact is walking closer to me. That's good. Quicker than burning to death. It reaches down and… also lifts me onto the platform? Huh?

It's saving me?

That's weird, Fulgora comments, and I barely manage to agree before I pass out.

- - -

All things considered, I gotta say: two suicidal magical girls is two too many. Especially when they're both my friends.

When it became pretty clear no one was coming after Thea, she and I agreed I should return to provide backup. So I did, only to find a massive fire tornado obliterating several blocks. Scans quickly indicated that Nanaya was the source of the destruction, and that it was entirely indiscriminate and actively killing her. So I knocked her dumb ass out. What the hell, woman? I thought you were smarter than that.

…Though maybe I shouldn't have. Nanaya is a person with a lot of self-control, who doesn't show a lot of emotion. But a catharsis, by definition, is an outpouring of repressed emotion. Of course it was going to be scary coming from someone like her. The last time she lost control of her emotions she nearly murdered two kids. …And this time, she nearly murdered one kid, or at least whatever the hell Minerva counts as.

…So now they're both unconscious on the platform spell I stole from Thea, having thoroughly beat the shit out of each other. It was kind of painful watching Eliza look at me and just assume she would die. I could see it in her eyes. And she just… didn't care. I could feel that she didn't care. That poor girl is not okay.

But whatever! She'll be alright. As long as I can get her out of this active war zone, anyway.

"It's fun, right!? Right!?" Anath shrieks with delight, the screeching sounds of metal against crystal ringing out like machine gun fire as she and Amaterasu exchange blows.

"It's not… supposed to be!" Amaterasu growls.

"But it is!"

…They're probably fine. Ultimately, I'm not too worried about either of them. After all, most of my attention is now forcibly taken up by Melpomene. She and Castalia cut through the sky, Melpomene chasing as Castalia evades, the two of them exchanging ranged attacks all the while. Even from here, I can see the sweat forming on my master's face, her third eye scrunched up with discomfort as the salty liquid slowly leaks in. She glares at her former teammate, though Castalia looks as implacable as ever, occasionally launching a searing beam of yellow light out of her stump arm.

Neither of them are speaking any spells out loud. Both of them are holding back. But Melpomene is very clearly losing.

She is, I suspect, holding back a lot more. She's not even in her incarnate form, for whatever reason, though her incarnate weapons are out and in her hands, shield and lance at the ready. But she can't out-dogfight incarnate form Castalia without even transforming. I don't know why she's even bothering to try.

Like… genuinely. That's weird and stupid, right? She just used her incarnate form earlier today, so it's not like she can't. What the heck is Mel's deal? Even Castalia is confused. She's probably holding back because she doesn't want to hurt her old teammate. I don't doubt that she could.

And so, I'm obligated to help out. I can't allow my master to lose. There's no way she wants that. And while I doubt I can fight Castalia, well… I do have the right kind of leverage to demand a ceasefire. Raising Eliza and Nanaya up into the air, I extend one palm towards the former. I'd never actually shoot poor Eliza, but… well, Castalia doesn't know that.

I approach the battle. It takes a while for either of them to notice me, as completely locked on each other's gazes as they are. With Nanaya's unconscious body behind me and Eliza's at my feet, ready to be shot at a moment's notice, I think my message is clear without any need for words. Melpomene's eyebrows raise in shock as she spots Nanaya unconscious, but my threat gets a small smirk out of her.

Castalia's expression, predictably, does not change. But I can feel the weight of her attention on me, and it's far worse than a glare.

"No," she says, and points her stub my way, energy twisting through the air as time slows down around me. Danger, danger, danger, danger!!! She's calling my bluff! Or… no. She doesn't care if it's a bluff. I couldn't shoot Eliza fast enough if I wanted to. All energy to frontal shields, reconfigure for—

My power reserves have been reduced to 16%. Entering power-saving mode.

A thin beam of light slams into me, devouring my shielding and knocking me clean off the floating platform, my body tumbling heels-over-head as my control over my active spells shatters, dropping Eliza and Nanaya. Castalia is already flying past to intercept, scooping Eliza up with her telekinesis, and Melpomene has to dive down to catch Nanaya.

That one shot took twenty percent of my power reserves, and she didn't even cast a named spell. Fuck! I… I definitely could have optimized my shielding better, though. I wasn't expecting that degree of physical force, but analysis of the mana flows indicates that it should be possible to predict the beam composition in advance going forward. I just need to create several shield presets that I can quickly configure and swap between as needed… renaming and iterating on the named shield spell I have could work, too. I can at least halve that energy loss, as long as I can get up the optimal barrier fast enough. But what am I built for, if not reacting fast enough?

I right myself in the air with a few bursts of thrust, landing on what's left of a roof below. Castalia glances at me, seeming genuinely surprised that I'm still intact, but then Melpomene is the center of her attention again, the two of them sizing each other up once more. Melpomene is now at even more of a disadvantage, having to unsummon her lance to hold Nanaya, whereas Castalia simply cradles Eliza with the same telekinesis she uses to fly. Melpomene isn't happy about it, but she definitely knows it.

"…Well, I've stalled you long enough, it seems," she says, Nanaya's body slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "The artifacts are ours."

"…Oh," Castalia blinks, glancing around. "Hmm."

"How about we call it here, then?" Melpomene suggests. "I'm sure neither of us would want our friends to get hurt."

"I still want to talk to you," Castalia insists. "You are being… stubborn."

"Well you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" Melpomene snaps. "There's nothing to say, Castalia. You'll learn what we're doing all this for soon. The whole world will, and you can't stop it anymore."

"I don't even know what I'm trying to stop," Castalia says, "because you won't tell me."

"Well maybe if you had asked at any time other than the middle of an active combat situation I would have answered!" Melpomene insists. "But no! You never pay any attention to the situation around you! To the people around you! You never thought to reach out before now?"

"I can't go to the Dark World," Castalia says.

"You could leave a goddamn note!" Melpomene shrieks. "Six years, Castalia! It's been six fucking years! Do you seriously think you can just waltz back into my life like you're special? Like I owe you a single fucking thing!? You abandoned me! You don't get to come back now."

"…I didn't know I was abandoning you until you were gone," Castalia says quietly.

"Well yes, I'm sure you didn't," Melpomene snaps. "That's often how it works."

"I was grieving," Castalia says. "I'm sorry."

"Going off on your own and becoming a fucking happiness mage is your idea of grieving!?"

Castalia stares at Melpomene with utter incomprehension.

"…Yes," she answers firmly.

Melpomene grits her teeth, that derisive sneer of hers becoming even uglier.

"Well I don't want any part of that," she says. "I'm over it, I'm over her, and I'm over you. I have more important things to be doing. So fuck off, Castalia."

She unsummons her shield, forming her lance in its place and pointing it at her former teammate.

"Or pick your casualty count."

Castalia stares at Melpomene, then glances at Eliza's unconscious body floating beside her.

"…I never wanted to fight you in the first place," she says. "But if you hurt any Earth Guardians again, I will not be trying to talk next time."

She turns and flies off, swooping down towards Anath and Amaterasu to scoop up the latter, the wolf girl squawking in protest as she's forcibly yanked away from the fight. Anath is even more visibly upset, but there's little she can do to stop Castalia from accelerating rapidly out of sight.

The moment she's gone, I summon one of the yellow injectors we collected today, open up the intake port on my thigh, and slam the entire thing directly into my storage system. An urge to giggle bubbles up inside me with nowhere to go, the parts of my emulated brain dedicated to autonomic functions flailing indignantly against the hardware that insists on checking with the somatic systems anyway. Hehe! My body is so cool!

I just tanked a shot from Castalia. Castalia! And yeah, it hurt as much as anything can really 'hurt' anymore (and isn't it also so cool I can't feel most kinds of pain anymore? Eee!) but I did it, and I'm okay, and I already have plans to do it better next time! And yeah, maybe it's bad that there's probably going to be a next time, but who cares!? It'll work out. Me and my badass body will find a way. I've really been worrying so much over such unlikely things, huh? I mean, we found exactly what Melpomene has been looking for! I bet she's going to be overjoyed with me. That'll feel so good.

Wow, haha! I know I'm in a bit of an altered state of mind right now, but I almost felt that one! I can't lie, though, there's something just so refreshing about having straightforward objectives and a built-in reward system. Of course, Melpomene is so far away from straightforward that she became a backward lesbian, but maybe things wouldn't be so bad if I got saddled with someone less crazy.

"You shouldn't be risking yourself like that, you know," Melpomene says, floating down to me. "All of the most important things we gathered today are in your memory."

"Don't worry, Mel. My risks were calculated and I am literally the best at math," I tell her brightly. "Besides, I found Nana literally immolating herself to death before I stepped in, so I can't say I'll ever regret it."

"Oh, Nanaya…" Melpomene sighs, glancing at where her friend sleeps on her shoulder. "Well, I suppose it all turned out well in the end, assuming Thea got away okay?"

I don't miss the undercurrent of threat in the question, but thankfully I'm so hopped up on artificial joy that I don't really care. Hooray for magic drugs!

"She's pretty damn far away, and well outside the most likely detection radius of anyone flying a straight path back to town," I report. "It would probably be best if we catch up with her, though. I'll show you the way."

Melpomene nods and we head out, picking up an extremely disgruntled Anath along the way and silently moving on the mathematically best path to intercept Thea (assuming she remains at the same speed and heading as when I left her). And sure enough, we're only a little bit off when I manage to spot her. Hooray for math!

"Hey, daughter otter! Melpomommy and I are back."

"Wh-what!?" Thea yelps.

"Luna…" Melpomene warns.

"Geez, you two are so uptight! We won! Smile a little. I can't do it anymore, so you all have to pick up the slack."

"That flying yellow jerk interrupted my fight!" Anath complains. "Just when everything was getting good! I'm gonna crack that furry, mark my words."

"…I'm not sure you should be the one going around calling people furries," Thea says.

"Why not?" Anath asks. "I've got the most experience."

"What all do you need to get started, Luna?" Melpomene asks, brazenly changing the subject.

"I mostly just have to get back to Earth," I answer. "Actually having access to the internet will be a big help for brushing up on my HTML/CSS skills, not to mention having to buy the website domain and decide whether to buy my own servers or just rent. Either way I'll probably start by making a bunch of social media accounts. I'm a one-woman bot network!"

"Well… I don't know what most of that means, but you have our full support in making this work," Melpomene assures me, and I was right. It does feel way too good. "Just let us know whenever you need something."

"You got it, boss!" I tell her in my best goon voice. "I'll just help you unload all this stuff, and then I'll head home to take care of it."

And so I do. The unpacking isn't too difficult when magic is involved, and Thea is not an organized enough person to ask us to do more than dump it all in her room. So before I know it, I'm back on Earth, my skin resummoned around me and my mind sucking up educational websites and maximum-speed YouTube tutorials while I decide all the nitty-gritty details of how exactly I want to go about this. I'm getting close to ready by the time I make it home, but there's a pretty important distraction waiting for me.

Castalia is once again on the couch, sitting with a rapidly dwindling tub of ice cream between her legs and a ten-year-old cartoon on the TV. The eyeball cameras in my skinsuit might not have anywhere near as much fidelity as my real body, but I can still clearly see the streaks on her face where tears have recently fallen. Oh boy. That's not good.

She doesn't even look at me as I walk in, so I sit down next to her on the couch and wait for her to peel her attention away from the screen before signing my hellos.

"It's pretty early. You don't normally wake up for a few more hours," I say, though of course I know full well what happened.

"Emergency call," Castalia croaks. "Several Earth Guardians in critical condition. We thought it might be a kaiju. It wasn't."

"Is everyone alright?" I ask.

"Everyone is alive," Castalia answers simply. "Where have you been? You weren't here when I woke up, either."

"I told you I like to take walks at night, didn't I?" I sign. "I have insomnia, so sometimes I'm out for hours."

"Isn't it dangerous for you to walk alone at night?" Castalia asks.

"Why do you think I carry pepper spray?" I answer, the lies coming so easily one after another. "What happened, Castalia? You seem upset."

"…My old teammate, Melpomene," she says. "My friend. I told you about her. She was the one who hurt them. And she… she's a purple mage now. I've never seen one of those before. She was so mad… I did so much wrong…"

She takes a shaky breath, telekinetically peeling off a chunk of ice cream and shoving it into her mouth. I do my best to control myself, to not think about anything Melpomene-related at all. After all, she's not the only person who can generate a ton of power with disgust towards a certain person. And even more fervently, I do my best not to remember what it was like just a little while ago to be consumed by joy to the point where I didn't hate her. That, frankly, was far worse.

But of course, I don't succeed. As much as I like to praise my newfound self-control, I can't put any subroutines in my mind that will help me avoid thinking about Melpomene.

"…What do you know?" Castalia asks.

Oh, shit.

"What do you mean?" I try to deflect. Maybe it's not as bad as I think. Maybe the empath hasn't noticed my surges of emotion whenever she talks about her ex.

"You recognize her name," Castalia says, and yeah. No such luck. Fuck. "You always feel very strongly about the name 'Melpomene.'"

Oh boy, I love needing to figure out how to gaslight my friends.

"I'd rather not say," I start with.

"Please," Castalia says, almost desperately. "What has she been doing these last six years? What happened?"

God. It's the most emotion I've heard in her voice since meeting her. And yet, all I can say is…

"I don't know," I lie. "I don't know her. It's just… she's obviously someone you love a lot. And… I have a crush on you. It just hurts a little, knowing I'll never have a chance."

"Oh," is all Castalia says. And then, after a long pause, "I'm going to bed. Can you help me? I might not have enough magic left."

"…Sure," I agree, and despite all my lies, she once again lets me see her at her most vulnerable. The sound of her ventilator hammers in my ears as I exit her room and shut the door behind me.

Well. It's a good thing I have such an important distraction. The website is pretty bare-bones at the start, but the most important thing it houses is a complete Antipathy-to-English dictionary, including guides on grammar and sentence structure to assist with proper translation. The number-one issue we're likely to encounter is people assuming that the information I'm sharing is made-up, doctored using Photoshop as an elaborate scheme for clicks and views. And don't get me wrong, I'm definitely going to be farming for clicks and views, but most people don't construct an entire complete conlang if they're just looking to prank someone on social media. It's essential to our credibility, even if it's far from foolproof.

It also shows the Preservers we aren't fucking around, which means we get to see how they react when things get serious. It's risky, but we have to know. How far can we push things before they decide to just get it over with and enslave humanity? Melpomene thinks we aren't going to have much leeway. Thea and I think we can do a lot more before they start to escalate. Either way, everyone agrees our entire plan changes based on exactly how they react.

Website assembled, it's time to let people know that it actually exists. I set up accounts on every major social media platform and a good chunk of the minor ones, ready to put everything I've learned about internet visibility to good use. Frankly, I expect my first attempt at this to be utter dogshit. I doubt most people will even give it a first look, let alone a second. But with every failure, I'll learn, and sooner or later people will know. And so, I write the post.

!!! SUCCESSFUL DARK WORLD EXCURSION COMPLETED !!!

Breaking news, everyone! I'm happy to announce that I've been part of a complete (albeit somewhat amateurish) archeological trip to none other than the motherfucking Dark World. I'm serious, this is not a drill. Check out some of these pictures!

"But OP," I hear you asking, "don't people just kinda fucking die when they go into the Dark World?" And to answer your question: no! It's actually way worse, so absolutely no one should be going into the Dark World under any circumstances. …Except, of course, for magical girls (and boys).

So that's where these pictures come from. I've included translations for all the writing you see here, which we have painstakingly decoded with the assistance of some mostly harmless Dark World artifacts. In fact, we have a near-complete dictionary of the Dark World language, which you can find here. It has taken us a long time to get the assistance of the magical community, which as you know is fairly private as a general rule. But thanks to four brave girls who have been working hard to make this possible, we finally know what's on the other side. We know what happened to the world where monsters come from.

I'll just be presenting the evidence and the translations. Any conclusions you make with this information are entirely up to you. Personally, though… I don't like what I've read.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.